Cox’s cove fisherman trucks cod fillet to Quebec and sells out in under an hour, boosting argument for outside buyers: FISH-NL

Posted by Ryan Cleary299sc on September 21, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 21st, 2017

The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says the actions of a Cox’s Cove fisherman this week in trucking cod fillet to Quebec and selling it for a profit boosts the argument for the province to allow in outside buyers.

“Inshore harvesters aren’t making the money they should be making because free enterprise doesn’t exist for them,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “Canadians are willing to pay good money for our cod, better money than local processors are paying, and harvesters are missing out. That must end.”

Fisherman Rick Crane from Cox’s Cove on Newfoundland’s west coast trucked 2,619 pounds of frozen cod fillet across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to a Quebec community, where the fish sold out on Tuesday evening in less than an hour.

Crane, well-known for his appearances on Cold Water Cowboys, says there were hundreds of people in line for fish, and he could have sold whatever cod he had. He prefers not to reveal the name of the Quebec community, to protect his market, and won’t say how much he sold the cod for.

But Crane made a healthy profit, and strengthened the argument for the Newfoundland and Labrador government to open the provincial market to outside buyers — which FISH-NL has called for since 2016.

“It needs to be done,” said Crane. “Why can’t fishermen put more money in their pockets instead of more money for the buyers?”

The cod fillet that Crane sold came from Newfoundland's northeast coast, where harvesters have had trouble selling their cod for much of August, because plants — which were tied up processing other species such as caplin — weren’t buying.